Workshop Handbook

Workshop Context and Purpose

Tip: The FLO Workshop Handbook contains many pages. If you're not a linear type, you can jump around by clicking on titles in the sidebar menu.

The FLO workshop introduces research-based online learning concepts, principles and strategies that can make online facilitating fun and effective. It builds on the fundamental principles of the face-to-face Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW). These principles include:

• participatory and learner-centred — participants form a learning community and support each other's learning
• a safe, respectful learning environment — you will be encouraged to take risks, be creative, and learn from your mistakes
• feedback-rich — you will be encouraged to give and receive feedback with fellow participants
• reflective practice — you will analyze and critically reflect on the art of facilitation and your facilitation skills
• relevant and meaningful — you will explore the future application and transferability of your learning in this course

FLO is meant to help you enhance skills needed to confidently and effectively facilitate online learning. It is designed to provide you with:

• the experience of being in the students' shoes;
• the opportunity to think about, practice and develop your online facilitation skills with other new and experienced online facilitators;
• the opportunity to deepen your learning as you synthesize your observations, reading and online activities in your journal.

Like the face-to-face Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW), where participants plan and teach "mini-lessons", in FLO you will facilitate a short learning activity (often referred to as a "mini-session") for your fellow FLO participants. Depending on the size of the class, facilitation is done individually or in small groups, and involves using online tools such as forums, wikis and polls.

Feedback from past FLO participants indicates that this hands-on practice was key to their enjoyment of the course and the synthesis of their learning. We hope the same holds true for you!

In a nutshell, this is what you will be doing in this workshop:

• facilitate, or co-facilitate, a pre-designed learning activity on a given topic;
• integrate adult and online learning theories and principles into activities you facilitate;
• experiment with a variety of learning-facilitation techniques and strategies;
• give and receive constructive feedback;
• work in online teams;
• reflect on, and plan how to apply, what you have learned to other courses and contexts.

FLO Learning Outcomes

The use of learning outcomes (rather than instructional objectives) draws from the fields of adult learning and online learning; both fields have shifted to focus on the learner, and the instructor's role is perceived to be a "facilitator of learning" rather than on the instructor as "expert."

This is a list of key themes related to successful online facilitation, and accompanying intended learning outcomes (ILOs) for this workshop. At the end of this workshop, you should be (better) able to apply these to your planning and teaching online. 

Build & sustain online community

• Reflect on the experience of online learning community
• Explore the role of instructor presence in online learning

Support diverse learners online

• Identify ways to help diverse learners online
  
• Use facilitation strategies and tools to address needs of adult learners

Facilitate collaborative and individual learning 

• Facilitate collaborative group and individual activities online
  
• Explore group dynamics in online collaborative activities

Constructive feedback and assessment

• Demonstrate effective feedback and assessment
• Critically reflect on feedback and course experiences to self-evaluate work and learning

Manage the online course environment

• Explore effective strategies to manage workload
  
• Improve use of tools within an online learning environment 
  

Note: You'll also notice intended learning outcome statements at the beginning of each learning activity. These statements are derivatives of the ILOs listed above and identify the ways in which each activity will support the main themes and ILOs of FLO. 

Learning Outcomes - Learning Activities

The following list identifies the intended learning outcomes for guided learning activities (also referred to as mini-sessions) and the ongoing activities that each participant completes regularly through the five weeks. Teams of participants will use these ILOs to guide their facilitation of weekly activities.

Although formal learning assessment is not required, team facilitators will be asked to reflect on participant (and their own) learning when they complete the post-session FLIF form ("FLIF" stands for Feel, Like, Improve, Feedback).

In addition, participants reflect on their learning experience and provide feedback to the team facilitators.

Weekly Activities

Mini-session facilitators:
• Critically evaluate facilitation, participation and learning

Mini-session participants:
• Provide constructive, growth-oriented feedback

General Activities

Workshop Structure and Layout

The information you see in the course is structured in three columns:

Column 1: provides access to your Administration block and your profile.

Column 2: tabbed pages include the Hub, 5 weekly themed pages, and a team workspace

Column 3: Quick Links - a quick way to find important information

Layout of Tabbed Pages

The Hub tab is where you will find resources and discussion forums that you'll need to use for the entire course. You will return to the Hub over and over again.

The Weekly tabs are located just after the Hub. Click on each weekly tab to see what is happening during that week of the course. We will move through these in order throughout the course.

The Facilitation Teams Workspace tab is where you will find detailed activity plans for each learning activity and a team planning forum for your team in the course.

Navigation

Breadcrumbs - a line of page links that illustrate the pages you clicked on to get to the page you're on

Tabbed pages - click on the week and topic you're looking for

Forward and back arrows - click on the labelled arrows at the bottom of each centre panel to navigate

e.g., page arrows

Participation Guidelines

Commitment

FLO is a participatory and cohort-based course.

To derive maximum benefit, and to be fair and supportive to your colleagues, you need to participate fully in online activities and discussions.

FLO requires commitment on your part. We recommend that you set aside 6 - 12 hours per week for online activities and course readings. You can expect to spend more time during the week you are facilitating. Also, the time you spend will vary depending on the number of optional readings you do and how much effort you put into the activities. In any case, plan to log into the course several times each week (daily would be best).

If, for some reason (work, travel, etc.), you will be without online access for a day or two, please let all FLO participants know in advance. It is important that you arrange to meet your participation requirements before or immediately after you get back online. (Note: If you plan to be away from the course for a week or more due to a work or personal commitment, please connect with the FLO facilitators asap to discuss whether this is the right time for you to take this course.)

Communication

Participating in online discussions requires clear communication; your goal is to post succinct, pertinent, thought-full comments.

Your colleagues will appreciate postings that:

• are relevant: on topic, relate to assigned readings
• are brief, but dense: information dense (say a lot in the least number of words)
• are well-crafted: clear, well-organized, logical
• are respectful, culturally appropriate, and constructive
• are connected, integrated, synthesized: readings, others' postings, and your experience are woven together
• provide evidence of analytical thinking and/or critical reflection
• bring in new new ideas or resources that enrich the discussion
• advance the thinking, learning, and dialogue of the group

It's important we demonstrate presence to create a stronger online community. To develop your online presence, be active and aware of other participants in the class. You need not respond to each post, but do notice whether all posts are acknowledged by someone. Tending to team members' learning needs will enrich everyone's learning and the energy of the team.

An important aspect of participatory and cohort-based learning is group/team maintenance. For such courses to achieve their educational potential, students need to take care of each other and support each other's learning. Replying to another student's post with a simplistic ”yes”, “I agree” or “good job” is rarely useful and can clutter up a discussion thread. Thinking of something new and substantive to say can be challenging, but it can also push you and deepen your own learning.

While each FLO learning activity may have different participation requirements, as a rule you should try to post at least two thoughtful, insightful or provocative messages per week, per activity.

In addition to this, please pay attention and contribute to the functioning and maintenance of the group. Be aware of any tension between group process and task completion. Work with your team to find a balance between discussing topics thoroughly and producing quality work efficiently.

Roles of Your FLO Facilitators

Throughout FLO, you'll notice that our role as workshop facilitators changes, depending on what's going on in each week.

In the beginning, we play a more active role in facilitating the learning activities, posing questions, and answering queries from you and your fellow participants. 

After our modelling of facilitation during the Week 1 discussion activity, we'll step back a bit to make way for you to lead the discussions and other activities (i.e., your team facilitated activities). We'll assist in the planning and organization of each session and participate in the feedback cycle (and overall course management), but we'll expect that you will take on an increasingly active role in the maintenance of the online learning community.

So, although we may not participate in the activities, we are actively monitoring what's happening and seeking ways to enhance the learning opportunities available to you as session facilitators and participants.

Privacy & Confidentiality

Understanding privacy

Trust is an essential part of a successful FLO. Our learning relies on the exchange of honest, constructive feedback, and we need to agree that our online learning environment will be private and confidential. Always seek permission to share content posted by participants.

During the workshop we often use social media and free online services to complete workshop activities. If you choose to include these services when you facilitate your mini-session, please ensure that you are familiar with the levels of privacy available, how the information will be stored and shared, and that any participants you involve are also aware of these aspects. 

Thank you for doing your part.

Access to this workshop space

This FLO offering is accessible by the workshop participants, facilitators, special assistants (individuals who are preparing to facilitate FLO in the future) and, occasionally, website administrators who we may call upon to assist with technical issues and editing. You will continue to have access to the workshop content and participants' contributions after the end date, and for as long as this website is supported. 

FLO Learning Activities

The key learning activities in FLO are:

• Overviews: Found at the top of each week’s tabbed page, this document provides an explanation of the focus and theme for the week.
  
  
• Facilitate / Participate
  • Your Weekly Activity: each week (after Week 1) you will take part in a facilitated learning activity (a mini-session) - either as a member of the team assigned to facilitate OR as a participant in the activity. (You will co-facilitate one mini-session during the course.)
    
  • If you are part of the facilitation team that week, you'll be asked to reflect on the feedback you get, and complete/submit a "FLIF" (Feel, Like, Improve, Feedback) reflection.
    
  • If you are a participant, you'll be asked to provide constructive feedback to the week's facilitation team members.
  
  
• Weekly Journal Share:

• Reflect and record the what, so what and next steps you will take away from FLO, and share a "nugget" or two with everyone each week.
  
• Include in your weekly journal share post your self-assessment of your own participation using the FLO Rubric.

Weekly Checklist

You will be attending to these activities throughout the five weeks of the workshop. If you prefer a visual approach, see the clickable illustration at the bottom of this page (organized by your roles in the workshop).

Weekly Activities

Overview - Read/view, reflect and discuss 

Your Learning Journal - Collect your thoughts, questions and reflections (this can be private or shared)

 FORUM: Weekly Journal Share - Extract or glean "nuggets" to share

Self-Assess Your Participation  - Refer to the rubrics, and include comments about your performance in your journal share.

Actively participate in each learning activity. We ALL count on your participation.

 FORUM: Open Forum - The "go-to" forum to read announcements, seek help, initiate discussions, etc. 

 Forum: Feedback For Facilitation Teams  - Wait until the weekly learning activity is completed, then follow the guidelines and post to the appropriate topic thread.

FLIF (Feel, Like, Improve, Feedback) - Facilitators complete these questions at the end of the week in which their Team facilitates.

A Visual Approach to Weekly Activities

Do you prefer a visual overview of weekly activities? Click on the image to view a presentation organized by your two roles in the workshop: participant and facilitator. Click on the left side for "facilitator" activities; the middle for activities for both roles; click on the right side for "participant" activities.

Activities: facilitating

During the FLO workshop, you will facilitate a week-long learning activity, referred to as a "mini-session", on a pre-assigned topic for your fellow FLO participants. You will be assigned to a team and topic. Teams typically have 2-3 members. You may negotiate a transfer to a different topic/team by posting your request to the Open Forum. 

Mini-sessions are activities that take place over each week of the course. Each activity plan can be found in the Facilitation Teams' Workspace tab and provides information you will need to facilitate the session effectively. To save time, and help you focus on learning and trying new facilitation techniques and skills, we've designed the basic activity for you. One of the FLO facilitators will be your lead support during the week.

Your FLO facilitator can assist you in developing your facilitation plan and using any tools within Moodle. Use the planning forum in your section of the Facilitation Teams' Workspace page, to develop your plan and to keep team members and the FLO facilitator up-to-date on progress and to coordinate your facilitation tasks during your activity.

Before your mini-session:

• Check the List of Facilitation Teams and Sessions in the Hub to determine which team you are on.
  
  
• Navigate to your private planning forum in the Facilitation Teams' Workspace page and post your contact information and availability as soon as possible. The forum is private and shared only with your team members and the FLO Facilitators. Keep your FLO facilitator informed about your progress and/or questions or concerns before and during the activity.
  
  
• Discuss how you will communicate during the planning. Identify what you need to prepare and who will take the lead.
  
  
• Review the week's Overview and the Activity Plan document to familiarize yourself with the theme for the week and the goal(s) and tasks for the session.
  
  
• Refer to the Intended Learning Outcomes in the Activity Plan to help you focus session activities. Plan how you will facilitate the activity together.
  
  
• Discuss with your team how you will summarize the activity. Think about a way to help participants synthesize their learning and come up with a "take home message".
  
  
• In your planning, consider that some of your participants may have work or other commitments during the week; try to build in some flexibility.
  
  
• Discuss if or how you would like to split the workload (e.g., alternate days, play different roles, focus on certain people, etc). No matter how you decide to facilitate, the key is, how can you support your learners to achieve the learning outcomes provided with your topic?
  
  
• As soon as possible, let the FLO facilitator know if you need any additional tools set up to support your activity (e.g., you may find you need a wiki, forum, special team permissions, etc.)
  
  
• Plan for a strong, clear start to your mini-session. Ideally, you should post a welcome message by Sunday evening. Think about how you will make sure that every participant receives/views it.
  
  
• Provide clear instructions, timelines, or other expectations. Ideally, introductory information like this will be online before your session starts. This ensures your online presence is evident when participants "arrive", early birds can get a jump on things if needed, and no time is wasted.

During your mini-session

• Facilitate as you see fit. Ideally you will come into it with a thoughtful plan containing well-reasoned strategies, and it will all unfold beautifully! If it doesn't, adjust as you go!
  
  
• Don't hesitate to contact your FLO facilitators for support during your Activity. We're here to help! We may also reach out to you privately in your planning forum with prompting questions to consider as things unfold.
  
  
• Be flexible - your participants may encounter unexpected challenges. Find ways to accommodate if possible but keep the session moving along.
  
  
• Communicate any changes clearly; ensure all participants are informed.
  
  
• Monitor participation during the week. You may choose to contact an individual privately to check on reasons for a lack of participation.
  
  
• Participants are asked to provide you with constructive feedback at the end of the week's learning activity. Remember that the feedback is intended to help you improve. You don’t have to agree with it or change your behaviour. Take a breath and reflect briefly before you respond.
  
  
• You may find that the value of the feedback increases if you ensure your full understanding by paraphrasing the information received and checking with the person who posted the feedback. If there are particular skills or facilitation techniques you want to improve, make sure to communicate with others so they can provide ongoing support.

After your mini-session

• Remind your participants to use the feedback forum to provide you with feedback about the mini-session.
  
  
• Review the feedback (and respond if you need clarification) before you complete your FLIF (Feel, Like, Improve, Feedback) reflection.
  
  
• Complete your own online FLIF. The FLO facilitator that was supporting you will review and respond in the FLIF itself (by using the Comment feature.)
  
  
• Celebrate! Your mini-session is done!

An ideal timeline

• The weekend before your mini-session week: post instructions (including timelines) for your participants. Make these extremely clear. 

• Monday: Ensure strong instructor presence early. If there are student posts, respond - acknowledge, encourage, re-direct if needed. If there are NO posts, make a move: post a message that provides a nudge and/or check for understanding (it may be that they are unclear about how to proceed and are waiting for someone else to make the first move). 

• Late Thurs/Friday - wrap things up and remind participants to provide you with feedback.

• End of your week - reflect on feedback you received and submit your FLIF - if you're delayed, please inform your supporting FLO Facilitator. 

Activities: participating

When you are not facilitating your own mini-session, you will be a participant in others' mini-sessions. Your role of participant is KEY!

During this time you are asked to:

• Actively participate as a student. Please try to participate equally in all sessions. This ensures all facilitators have an equal opportunity to practice their skills.
• Provide timely and constructive feedback to the mini-session facilitators each week.

Learning Journal

Part 1 - Journal and share weekly "nuggets" as we go...

We're fans of learning journals. We know that unless and until we actually jot notes as we go, notes that move "hey neat" ideas toward application and implementation, we often lose many of the details that could help us transform ideas/thoughts into action.

So, you're asked to record what you are learning and want to remember in the form of a journal.

As you go, you’ll encounter some readings that you think are terrific (and some...not so much).  You'll think some of your colleagues' ideas are brilliant (and some...not so much). Some of the teaching strategies and technology tools will resonate with you more than others. Get these thoughts down before they get jumbled with others and lose their usefulness to you.

Keep the criteria for self-assessment of participation (FLO Rubrics) in mind as you capture your thoughts about the week's experiences. 

You are welcome to use whatever format you like for your journal (blog, paper notebook, Google doc, etc) - it is your own journal, which you may keep private if you choose.

And, each week review your journal and extract an "aha" moment. This could be a quotation from a reading or forum that made something clear or made your smile. Also, share some insights you gleaned from self-assessing your participation each week (using the FLO Rubrics). Post these nuggets from your journal to the Weekly Journal Share forum. 

Here's a fun Powtoon [40 secs] to watch to get you in the mood. :-)

Note: You will find some journal prompt questions in the Weekly Journal Share Forum.

Part 2 - Collect for Final Sharing Activity

During the Week 5 you'll be asked to participate in a final reflective activity called "Looking Back, Looking Forward". As you progress through the course, collect resources that you might use to illustrate or communicate your final reflections in a unique and creative way. That might include short videos, images (drawings or photographs), snippets of a particularly eloquent argument you put forward in a forum?

Tracking Your Progress

During FLO you will be monitoring your progress in a variety of ways. 

• Check the FLO Schedule frequently to stay on top of the workshop schedule and tasks.
• Document your observations and learning in your journal.
• Reflect on your team facilitation experience when you complete your FLIF form.
• Compare your understanding and abilities with the Intended Learning Outcomes for the FLO Workshop and individual activities. 
• Monitor your participation and facilitation experience using the FLO Rubrics (and the summary tables).
• Check your completed activities against the criteria for earning FLO badges (and the workshop certificate).

(Self) Assessing Your Participation

One of the practical aspects of teaching and learning online is assessing participation. It’s an important topic, and so we’re going to “bookend” the FLO with it as follows:

• At the beginning, you will review the FLO Rubric and think about any additional methods you might use to structure and guide your self-assessment of your own participation in the workshop. You may want to use a visual map or flowchart to highlight the important elements or behaviours you identify as important to evaluate. You may prefer to use the summary tables to quickly calculate your score each week.
  
  
• Throughout the workshop, use your personal journal to track your learning and the FLO rubric to review your participation. Each week, contribute some reflections or thoughts about your learning and self-assessment process to the Weekly Journal Share forum. After your team facilitation event, complete a reflective form (FLIF - Feel, Like, Improve, Feedback).
  
  
• Think about your learning. At various points throughout the workshop, you are prompted and encouraged to reflect and assess your learning. Thinking about your learning is known as "metacognition" and it is recognized as an important learning skill and an integral part of becoming a better online learner and facilitator.

• During the final week, the last team of facilitators will be asking you to reflect back on your course experience and your teaching practice in general. This will give you a chance to dig deeper and make plans for your future work online.

Above all…!

FLO Rubrics

Team Facilitation (Facilitator Role)

This summary table is a useful way to record your team facilitation, as outlined in the Rubric.

1. Calculate your weekly score (1, 2, or 3) for each criteria over each week.
2. What is your calculated weekly total scores? Maximum weekly total is 4x3 = 12 
3. Reflect: What are your critical strengths and areas needing improvement?
   

Weekly Participation (Participant Role)

This summary table is a useful way to record your weekly participation as outlined in the Rubric.

1. Calculate your weekly score (1, 2, or 3) for each criteria over each week.
2. What is your calculated weekly total scores? Maximum weekly total is 4x3 = 12 
3. Reflect: What are your critical strengths and areas needing improvement?
   

Tip: You may want to copy and paste the table into your own document or spreadsheet. 

Earning Badges and a Certificate

Successful completion of the Facilitating Learning Online workshop requires that you attend to two different roles in the workshop: learner and facilitator. There are several tasks and performance criteria associated with each role.

As outlined in pages above, there are multiple methods for reflecting on and assessing your learning and participation. The Intended Learning Outcomes and FLO Rubric will help you to monitor your progress. What you (and others) take away from FLO is wholly dependent on what you contribute. As such, the badges awarded during the workshop reflect your investment in this learning community.

How to earn badges

The following badges are available to you. As soon as you satisfy the criteria for a badge, it will appear in your profile. (Click on your name anywhere it appears in FLO to view your profile.)

Active Learner

Access the FLO Handbook Share nuggets in the Weekly Journal Share forum

Connected Learner

Introduce yourself in the Introductions Forum Provide feedback to all the Facilitation Teams

Reflective Facilitator

	Review your team's feedback on your facilitation Complete the FLIF (Feel, Like, Improve, Feedback) reflection Contribute to the Reflective Practice activity in Week 5

How to earn a FLO Certificate

At the end of the FLO workshop, YOU determine if you have earned your Certificate. Use these questions to guide your decision:

1. Have I reflected on my own participation (quantity and quality) in the workshop?
2. Did I support the Facilitation Teams by participating in their learning activities and providing feedback?
3. Did I satisfy the criteria for the 3 FLO badges?

During Week 5 you will have access to a tool to indicate your workshop completion status.

When to withdraw from FLO

Sometimes there are circumstances that prevent us from participating as often and as fully as we would like in a course. If you find that you are unable to complete the minimum tasks outlined for the FLO Certificate, then it is best to withdraw and try for a future offering. Notify the FLO facilitators of your intentions. In fairness to all participants, there is no "audit" option for this workshop.

About the Workshop Content

The materials and design of this workshop build on the open educational resource that has been available in various iterations through Royal Roads University (RRU) since 2005. The design is based on the Instructional Skills Workshop in that activities provide an authentic environment for faculty to learn about and practice skills related to facilitating learning. 

Important differences between the face-to-face ISW and the FLO:

• FLO is about online facilitation, and learning, whereas the ISW is about teaching in face-to-face settings.
• The topics you will be facilitating in FLO are about teaching and learning, whereas ISW lessons are on any topic. 

In September, 2013 the workshop was revised and implemented at BCcampus - SCoPE for the first time. Since that date FLO has been revised and offered many times, awarding certificates to faculty and staff from post-secondary institutions across the province.

In February 2015, the name of the workshop changed from Instructional Skills Workshop Online (ISWO) to Facilitating Learning Online (FLO), to more closely reflect the focus on online facilitation.

In February 2016, FLO-FDO facilitators participated in a 2 day Design Sprint to integrate a new design and delivery model for FLO, incorporating feedback from participants and graduates of Facilitating Learning Online (FLO) and Facilitator Development Online (FDO) workshops. The "new" FLO deepens the emphasis on facilitation and collaborative learning and scaffolds the team facilitation activities more effectively.

 
This workshop is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.